Here are today's opinion and editorial columns.
PRESIDENT OBAMA AT THE BORDER EDITORIALNEW YORK TIMESMr. Obama and the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, should heed the growing calls by lawmakers ... to abandon Secure Communities to preserve public safety. As for the broader issue of immigration reform, Mr. Obama’s aides insisted on Tuesday that he did, indeed, have a plan that interested Americans could read on the White House Web site. If Mr. Obama is really committed to this issue it’s going to take a lot more than that.
BAD BARGAINS BY THOMAS FRIEDMANNEW YORK TIMES We are in a ménage à trois with the al-Sauds and the Wahhabis. We provide the al-Sauds security, and they provide us oil. The Wahhabis provide the al-Sauds with legitimacy and the al-Sauds provide them with money (from us). It works really well for the al-Sauds, but not too well for us. The only way out is a new U.S. energy policy, which neither party is proposing. Hence, my conclusion: We are surely safer with Bin Laden dead, but no one will be safe without different ruling bargains in Islamabad and Riyadh.
Then the Navy Seal Team 6 dropped from the Pakistan sky. And now the duo, planning for a 2012 release, have an exciting ending and excited financiers. "We've certainly been getting more calls from studios," [screenwriter Mark] Boal says wryly. "We were charging ahead with a movie that ended in Tora Bora with Bin Laden still alive. Now we have a definitive ending." ... Osama is ready for his close-up. But it's going to be less flattering - and more final - than he intended.
WHY AREN'T THE POWERS THAT BE TACKLING THE JOBS CRISIS? BY KATRINA VANDEN HEUVELWASHINGTON POSTThe trade deficit is rising, despite the lower dollar. Masked by the statistic of 9 percent unemployment are 25 million people in need of full time work. Mass unemployment, particularly in a society like ours with such a limited safety net, is a tale of misery, one that resounds across the country and goes virtually unheard in our capital. Americans think Washington isn’t listening — and they are right.
DID PAKISTAN KNOW BIN LADEN WAS 'HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT'? BY DAVID IGNATIUSWASHINGTON POSTThe fact that bin Laden lived for so long under the military’s nose, as it were, has prompted some stinging commentary in Pakistan. ... And what happens next, as the United States begins to exploit the “treasure trove” of information found in bin Laden’s compound? Among other things, that cache may reveal what, if anything, Pakistani officials knew, and when they knew it.
WASHINGTON VA. ENERGY SECURITY BY HAROLD FORD JR.WALL STREET JOURNALThe kickoff of the presidential campaign season and the spike in fuel prices offer an opportunity to constructively debate a comprehensive national energy strategy. Effective policies will ensure sufficient domestic production and the healthy operation of U.S. companies abroad, which together will provide the secure, affordable energy supply that Americans need.
BRITAIN GOES WOBBLY ON TERROR BY ANDREW ROBERTSWALL STREET JOURNALFrom Britain's pathetic and ignoble reaction to the death of our greatest ally's No.1 foe, I fear for our fortitude in the continuing war against terror. The British government in London and the British Army in Afghanistan are magnificent, but if the people themselves are shot through with what Winston Churchill called "the long, drawling, dismal tides of drift and surrender," I wonder whether we can be counted upon for much longer.
OLD MAN WITH CLICKER BY MAUREEN DOWDNEW YORK TIMES